Between 2006 and 2008, the United Nations reported that half of all ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean heading towards Europe that were seized carrying cocaine departed from Venezuela.

By comparison, 5 percent of ships seized carrying cocaine departed from Colombia.

Source:  Chris Hawley, “Venezuela drug trade booms,” USA Today, July 21, 2010.

Drug traffickers are building submarines to transport cocaine from South America to Mexico. The cocaine is the smuggled into the United States.

A typical submarine costs about $1 Million to build and can carry up to 4 metric tons of cocaine. In addition to the cost of building the sub, traffickers pay the crew manning the sub up to $25,000.

With a kilogram of cocaine selling on average for $90,000 in the United States, the amount of cocaine shipped in a 4 ton submarine can be valued for up to $360 Million (90,000 times 4,000).

Source:  Dane Schiller, “Sinking to new lows,” Houston Chronicle, June 26, 2010.

In 2009, 45.4 percent of coca was from Peru, 39.3 from Colombia and 15.3 percent from Bolivia.

119,000 metric tons of coca leaf was from Peru, with Colombia producing 103,000 metric tons.

For processed cocaine, Colombia still lead the world in terms of production in 2009 with 410 tons.

Source: AFP, “Peru becomes the world’s leading coca producer: UN,” Google News, June 22, 2010.

Colombian drug traffickers had sales of $6.6 Billion in 2008.

Source:  UNODC, “The Globalization of Crime,” Chapter 11: Regions Under Stress, June 2010.

Analysis on cocaine seized in the United States have repeatedly shown that nearly 90 percent of samples have originated from Colombia.

Source:  UNODC, “The Globalization of Crime,” Chapter 4: Cocaine, June 2010.

In the ten years between 1998 to 2008, the area devoted to coca cultivation in Peru increased by 45 percent. In 2008 alone, the area of coca cultivation increased by 4.5 percent in Peru from the previous year.

In contrast, in 2008 coca cultivation in Colombia decreased by 18 percent from the previous year.

Source:  Simon Romero, “Coca Growing Surges in Peru as Drug Fight Shifts Trade,” New York Times, June 13, 2010.

390 metric tons of cocaine was produced in Colombia in 2009, down from 430 in 2008.

68,025 hectares of land was devoted to growing coca in the country, the lowest level since 1998.

Source:  Matthew Bristol, “Colombian Cocaine Production Fell to 11-Year Low Last Year,” Bloomberg BusinessWeek, May 12, 2010.

In 2009, there were 2,899 murders in Medellin, Colombia, doubled the murder total in 2008.  The increase is directly attributed to  fighting between the estimated 150 to 300 drug gangs over territory in the region.

Source:  Nadja Drost, “In Medellín, a Disturbing Comeback of Crime,” Time, February 22, 2010.